{"id":3000076379,"date":"2024-05-24T06:48:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T10:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?p=3000076379"},"modified":"2026-02-13T10:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:59:38","slug":"five-strategies-for-managing-a-remote-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/growth-innovation\/five-strategies-for-managing-a-remote-team","title":{"rendered":"Five strategies for managing a remote team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Remote work<\/a> has been around for some time, and as more and more companies are embracing flexible work policies, it doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going away anytime soon. Even before the recent pandemic, it wasn\u2019t uncommon for people to work from home, but their number saw unprecedented growth<\/a> once social distancing became a necessity. Of course, technology played a crucial role in making this shift as smooth as possible. Most office workers can carry out their daily activities with a laptop, reliable internet connection, and access to various communication tools that help them keep in touch with team members. Many also look to flexible office spaces<\/a> that come equipped with everything professionals need for a productive workday. Still, there remain a couple of things that technology simply can\u2019t provide, and this is where managers come in<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees rely on their supervisors for a sense of direction and support at work, but this becomes trickier to navigate with people that you rarely see or, in some cases, have not even met in person. Managing a remote team, then, comes with its unique challenges. Luckily, there are some tried and tested practices that can help you unify an otherwise geographically scattered crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The challenges of a remote workforce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lack of clear expectations and boundaries, feelings of isolation, burnout<\/a>, and distractions at home<\/a> are among the things that workers may experience when they switch from a physical office to a remote one. Some think that the employees who know what they\u2019re supposed to do at the office will automatically know what\u2019s expected of them at home, as well. In reality, the lines between work and home can easily become blurry, and your team members could end up doing overtime and reach burnout without even realizing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, face-to-face supervision will be missing, but perhaps the absence of casual interactions will be what affects your team more. Under the right guidance and with clear goals in mind, they could keep up an impressive performance even from home. However, without the regular chats by the water cooler or coffee breaks with coworkers, their morale might diminish. Not to mention how hard it is to spend hours on end in front of a screen without breaks that truly help them disconnect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confusion is another challenge that remote team management can pose. For example, we could be sending out carefully crafted emails, but sometimes they may not be as straightforward as we intend them to be, so valuable information could get lost along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this goes to show that remote work management is a new provocation that requires new solutions, so let\u2019s take a look at what managers can do to keep employees on track<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n